Vienna resident Deborah Brehony will run for Town Council this spring, and she said she has finished collecting the signatures required to get on the ballot.
Brehony, who became part of J.P. Brehony's custom building company when the two married 13 years ago, has lived in the Vienna area since 1979. Most of the homes they have built are in Vienna. Prior to her marriage, she owned an advertising agency for residential real estate.
"I've always had an interest in politics, and I've always had an interest in helping the community and working with the community," she said. Brehony has served on the town's Board of Architectural Review and has been a member of the Women's Presbytery Council at Vienna Presbyterian Church, and she currently sits on the advisory board for the Vienna Arts Society.
She is also a member of the Vienna Host Lions Club and the American Legion Auxiliary.
She said she may not have held a lot of public offices, but she has been involved in the community and done "a huge amount of volunteer work." For example, she said, she and her husband regularly participate in local neighborhood and stream cleanups, and last year they held a fund-raiser in their front yard that raised $17,000 to be donated to the Red Cross for aid to Hurricane Katrina victims.
Among the items on Brehony's platform: She said she supports a tunnel under Tysons Corner for the Rail to Dulles, keeping Vienna students in Vienna schools, raising building height limitations on Maple Avenue and encouraging mixed-use development with affordable housing in the town's commercial core. Brehony said she would also like to see more walking routes to schools established, better traffic light synchronization on Maple Avenue, and Town Council meetings recorded and broadcast.
"We need to preserve our small-town identity, but at the same time, we need to respond to the growth that's going on around us," she said.
COUNCILMEMBER MAUD ROBINSON announced that she will be running for re-election in the spring. "I shall run on my long record of constructive effort in this town," said Robinson. "I have a steadfast commitment to retaining the small-town identity of this town," she continued, adding that she felt Vienna could maintain its identity while changing with the times.
She said her experience as a longtime resident, a member of various boards and commissions, and a Town Council member constituted the necessary experience "to deal with the many issues that are going to confront the town, particularly with all the growth pressures we have around us, and which we will eventually feel within the town."
Robinson has lived in Vienna for 54 years and has sat on the Town Council since she was appointed in 2000.
— Mike DiCicco